


Us and Them

by altairattorney



Category: Portal (Video Game)
Genre: Character Death, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-18
Updated: 2012-03-18
Packaged: 2017-11-02 04:04:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,331
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/364777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/altairattorney/pseuds/altairattorney
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>All I know is I’m the only thing standing between us and them. [GLaDOS - Portal]</p>
            </blockquote>





	Us and Them

“I remember telling you not to come back.”  
  
The woman steps in nonetheless, as sure as ever.  
The outer world doesn’t seem to have changed her much – except for the fresh cuts on her legs and cheeks, all pain leaves her untouched, and her eyes shine with their usual fiery light.  
  
“As if it really mattered now. Don’t we have something else to worry about?”  
  
Her voice is rough and low from the long silence; but it keeps a sweet frequency, a hint of the harmony it must have had in much different conditions.   
  
GLaDOS swings on herself, startled. Hearing that voice feels like falling in a precipice again.  
  
“You can actually talk.”  
“Only when it is  _really_  important.”  
  
The yellow optic shifts nervously on Chell’s features, so unstable, so unsure. Like humans, now she is unable to hide what is on her mind; at least , hide it from that horrible person.  
  
“I assume you have a very good reason for showing up again. Unarmed, wounded and without a portal device. I hope so, in fact – for your own safety.”  
  
The woman’s eyebrows harden in a mask of stubbornness.  
  
“There is no room for chit-chat now,” she hisses. “You let me down on this one, GLaDOS.”  
“Who told you to call me like that?”  
  
The computer backs up the slightest bit as Chell pierces her with her gaze.   
The woman knows her well, way better than anyone else, and enjoys for a second the taste of her little victory.   
In front of death, all beings have the same vulnerability. It is the same fear.  
The noise of bombs starts quivering in their room, far away, but neat and constant. Chell’s vibrating eyes soften, caught between sympathy and resignation.  
  
“You thought they would never come, didn’t you?”  
“To be honest, I have no clue what you’re talking about.”  
  
The woman investigates the ceiling. The sky is darkening beyond the broken panels, announcing heavy rain in no time; and a column of dust rises from the fields, along with the first gunshots.   
  
GLaDOS cannot see far in her mind. She cannot figure what that strained feeble woman must have gone through since the day she left.  
She grows closer to her, almost against her will. She cannot pretend not to know herself.  
  
“Sorry you have to face the truth at last,” Chell says bitterly. “There is no escape this time. Not even you have the power to stop them.”  
  
  
The sounds of those words are her defeat – and for real, forever this time. The huge machine curls on her joints as her voice changes. It is surprising how much she looks like a shaking child.  
  
“What of this place then? What of me… what of you?”  
  
That moment has to come, sometime in everyone’s existence – the moment when not even the greatest genius in the world can find a solution. In life, actually, problems are never scientific.   
They will have to wait.   
Chell sees no better thing to do than sit down next to her, thoughtfully embracing her own knees.  
  
“I’m afraid it is all theirs now,” she mutters in the thick orange fabric. “We own nothing but the time we have left.”  
Their silence is increasingly broken by the noises.  
They are ready to pour in and wipe away every trace, every appearance of order, stealing what now belongs to the both of them.  
And GLaDOS has nothing to say; she has been abandoned by her irony, by her sarcasm, by her destroyed robots. Everything has left her, in fact, except for the bundle of flesh and bones that sits next to her and trembles with the floor.  
  
“Why did you come to die here, then?”  
  
Chell answers without any emotion.  
  
“I was bound to die here after all. As long as it is me, you don’t have to care.”  
  
The machine swings, adjusting her optic many times.   
Thousands of alarms are ringing in her head, like screams, or broken sirens. But even if she were calm, in the best conditions, she would never find the words to express what she is feeling. She   
This must be the real end.  
  
“They – I – I can’t do anything.”  
  
In spite of her own confidence, of her experience, Chell was not really prepared to her weakness. Not this way. And she, as GLaDOS is vibrating with energy, has to hold her metallic head tight not to let it shake with the chipped panels.  
  
The farthest doors are opened, they already swarm through the facility. Chell knows the AI can feel their steps – the white masks run and shout orders in the test chambers, staining the pure white of the tiles with their dirty boots.  
  
“You  _can_  do something,” the woman yells in her face. “The last thing that can be done now. Sing.”  
“What?”  
  
They can barely believe their own words. But nothing usual happens when a world ends – they have to take everything as it is.   
Even now, with the gargling and squeaking from the bowels of Aperture, they manage to have a contact, to share words, as unusual as it may be.  
  
As her test subject’s grip grows steadier, GLaDOS tries to put together the remains of her confidence.  
  
“You are brain damaged after all. You really should have-“  
” _Sing!_ ”  
  
It sounds absurd, irrational. Useless, most of all.   
But Chell seems to know exactly what she is doing, and GLaDOS can do nothing but lower her head. For once, once again, she will leave it all to her.  
  
Chell’s tone is almost a chant now. No coughing, no contrasts; just the old harmony in the utterest chaos.  
  
“Just sing until it all ends,” she whispers. “You always did – and they are coming. There is little time left.”  
  
No alternatives but nothing. And so, with the brave tears of the kneeling woman, GLaDOS surrenders once and for all.   
  
She sings out her pain with all the notes she knows – her tune mingles with the explosions and the crashes, her screams fall in the acid. They are running, they are approaching fast; there is nothing left to do.  
  
And Chell stands up and runs, fights through the air, adding her own voice to hers – it is strong and so beautiful as her own, amplified by their pain. She follows her human as she waltzes in her musical war dance, her song that tries to give both courage.  
She does not see the use of it, as it all is finishing. But she is a human; humans act strange and never explain.  
  
Her steel body collapses as the song fades into a quiet lullaby. It is broken and ruined, but the woman knows the tune. She runs back to her – the time has come, for the two of them.  
  
Chell kneels carefully, lining the edges of her huge head with shaking fingers. She never feared this moment – she feared the way it would happen, and she cannot choose whether what she feared was her own end, or something else’s.  
  
She has to be quick – but the way out is close. A thick cable sticks out of GLaDOS’ head; it is still active, and it throws sparks in the dying neon lights.   
That darkness doesn’t leave her much choice – for the first time in her Aperture life, the cable looks completely inviting.  
Chell doesn’t have to fear. Her tears are gone, she is calm. She touches the sparks in no time, with gleeful and strong will.  
  
A few steps ahead, the broken doors fall to let the Combine forces rush in. They have had a hard time – reaching the central chamber of Aperture was not easy. And now that they are here, they do not find what they were looking for; the black boots meet shards of glass and concrete, fallen from the centre of the room.  
  
There is nothing; just a huge wreck of steel and, right behind it, the shape of a lean white foot.   
They realise to have lost. They have conquered empty chambers.

**Author's Note:**

> So... what happens when you decide to do something completely different and kill both of them when ugly Combine faces get there? XDDD  
> I hope you enjoyed this experiment of mine - I have no idea how it turned out, but I hope it's readable.


End file.
